Fighting Force - Cartridge Authentication & Manual
11RANKING: C
This was originally gonna be "Streets Of Rage 4", but from what I heard Sega pulled the SOR license when Core wanted to put the game on other systems beside the Saturn. So, instead we got "Fighting Force", thank god, because this wasn't worthy of the "Streets Of Rage" name. Funny enough, this wasn't on the Saturn. To spite Sega probably.
Plot: Dr. Dex Zeng, a criminal mastermind with an army at his command who predicted that the world would end in the year 2000. After New Year's Eve 1999, Dr. Zeng believed that there was an error preventing the apocalypse, so decides to correct it by destroying the world himself. (Just like in real life, Y2K didn't bring the apocalypse, this game was made before 2000, so they got that prediction right.) You play as 1 of 4 characters to stop him.
What we have here is a mediocre "Beat 'Em-Up". Rented this back when it came out, never beaten it until now, it's still as mediocre as whenI played it back then. Bad camera angles; it defaults to a pretty close angle, which can cause you to get hit by an enemy just off screen, throwing shit at you. Or you have to hold a button to zoom out, but it doesn't show the whole play area a lot of times. Other 3D "Beat 'Em-Ups" did the camera better: "Die Hard Arcade" had a zoomed out camera that showd the whole play area, most of the time. "Zombie Revenge" also did a zoomed out camera, but it also moved on a predetermined track as you moved along the area. Also, the controls aren't as responsive/slow as in the 2 other games I mentioned, you go through 7 stages of this.
I wouldn't really recommend this game, it's too bad, with very few "Beat 'Em-Ups" on the N64; the best 3D "Beat 'Em-Up" of the 5th Generation systems I would say is "Die Hard Arcade", play that. I'd also recommend "Zombie Revenge", it's a hard one [that's what she said] but a good one. I know GeneralLotz, who just did a review on that game, and he didn't like it because of the difficulty (gotta get good) I'd give it a recommend if you are willing to learn how to play the game.
PUBLISHER: Crave
DEVELOPER: Core Design
Release Date: April 30, 1999